report August 10, 2021 Why crypto matters HEFFNER: I’m Alexander Heffner, your host on The Open Mind, I’m delighted to welcome today’s guest, Professor Eswar Prasad. He is the professor of trade policy at Cornell University and author of the upcoming book “The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution is Transforming Currencies and Finance.” Thank you so much for joining me today, Professor. PRASAD: It’s my... By Brookings Institute, Podcast Episode Brookings Institute
report August 10, 2021 What if teaching mirrored how human brains learn? “Here we are again.” These are the words of one art teacher in Tennessee that reflect educators’ wariness about the new school year as a recent surge in COVID-19 threatens plans to resume in-person learning. Yet in the face of all this continued uncertainty, heroic educators still ask: How can I support my students? They consider both their students’... By Brookings Institute, Post Brookings Institute
report August 10, 2021 Global governance after COVID-19 Background The Global Economy and Development Program at Brookings conducted a survey on multilateralism in the Spring of 2021 as part of a project on the future of global governance. This report summarizes and analyzes the results. It comes at a time when the new Biden administration has re-committed the United States to multilateral cooperation and multiple initiatives—notably on international... By Brookings Institute, Report Brookings Institute
report August 10, 2021 Global governance after COVID-19: Survey report Background The Global Economy and Development Program at Brookings conducted a survey on multilateralism in the Spring of 2021 as part of a project on the future of global governance. This report summarizes and analyzes the results. It comes at a time when the new Biden administration has re-committed the United States to multilateral cooperation and multiple initiatives—notably on international... By Brookings Institute, Report Brookings Institute
report August 7, 2021 Africa in the news: Politics, security, and wildlife poaching updates South Sudan’s Machar deposed as head of party; South Africa’s Zuma hospitalized On Wednesday, the military wing of South Sudanese Vice President Riek Machar’s political party (the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition) announced that it had deposed him as party head after a three-day meeting of senior officials. The military wing indicated that Machar had “completely failed” to strengthen the party’s... By Brookings Institute, Post, Uncategorized Brookings Institute
report August 6, 2021 A case study comparison of industries without smokestacks in Senegal and Ghana In collaboration with think tank partners on the continent, the Brookings Africa Growth Initiative team recently published a series of reports examining industries without smokestacks (IWOSS) in various countries in the region. For the purpose of the research, IWOSS activities are defined as those that are tradable, have high value added per worker relative to average economywide productivity, exhibit... By Brookings Institute, Post Brookings Institute
report August 6, 2021 Addressing youth unemployment in Africa through industries without smokestacks: A synthesis on prospects, constraints, and policies Young people between the ages 15 and 24 constitute 20 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s population, making it the youngest continent in the world. While this trend is an opportunity for increased creativity and innovation, it is also a risk for many youths in the region not in education, employment, or training. And the number of young people continues to... By Brookings Institute, Report Brookings Institute
report August 5, 2021 It takes a village: The role of mentorship in supporting India’s young women in the workforce Despite important gains in the formal education of girls in the last decade and half, women in India are conspicuously missing from the workforce. The country achieved universal girls’ enrollment in primary education in 2003, secondary-school enrollment currently stands at 74.5 percent, and in higher education, women participate in close to equal numbers as men. Yet, between 2005 and... By Brookings Institute, Post Brookings Institute
report August 5, 2021 CFA franc zone: Economic development and the post-COVID recovery Comprising many of the poorest countries in Africa, the CFA franc zone faces particularly daunting challenges to economic development and growth in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Encompassing 14 countries in francophone West and Central Africa, the CFA franc zone faces climate change, poverty traps, demographic pressures, and natural resource management hurdles. Furthermore, the trifecta of high energy... By Brookings Institute, Post, Uncategorized Brookings Institute
report August 3, 2021 Leveraging IWOSS and soft skills to address slow structural transformation and youth unemployment in Uganda In recent years, Uganda’s economic growth has been among sub-Saharan Africa’s strongest, averaging 5.4 percent between 2010 and 2019 (World Bank, 2020). However, the rate of growth has failed to match the rate at which employment opportunities are created to both absorb the burgeoning labor force and improve livelihoods. The high population growth rate (recorded at 3.1 percent per... By Brookings Institute, Post Brookings Institute
report August 3, 2021 The impact of COVID-19 on industries without smokestacks in Uganda Abstract In Uganda, the spread of COVID-19 and its economic impacts gained momentum in March 2020 when the country’s first case was reported. By March 30, the government of Uganda had declared a nationwide lockdown in addition to other critical measures to minimize its spread. The impacts of the virus itself together with government initiatives to control its spread have been... By Brookings Institute, Report Brookings Institute
report August 3, 2021 Employment creation potential, labor skills requirements, and skill gaps for young people: A Uganda case study Introduction Over the course of the last decade, Uganda’s economic growth has ranked among sub-Saharan Africa’s strongest; indeed, the country’s annualized average growth rate was 5.4 percent between 2010 and 2019 (World Bank, 2020). Despite this impressive growth, there has been limited creation of productive and decent jobs1 to both absorb the burgeoning labor force and improve livelihoods. The population... By Brookings Institute, Report Brookings Institute
report August 3, 2021 The power of technical and vocational skills: Increasing girls’ participation in formal agriculture education in Afghanistan In March 2021, I visited an agriculture and veterinary institute (AVI) in northern Balkh province in Afghanistan. With state-of-the-art educational infrastructure and labs, the institute is built on about 250 acres of land in the outskirts of Mazar e Sharif. The AVI is separated from the surrounding villages by the walls of an old castle. Beyond the walls, you... By Brookings Institute, Post Brookings Institute
report August 3, 2021 What is swing pricing? The problem In March 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., investors pulled more than $100 billion out of corporate investment-grade and high-yield bond mutual funds, forcing funds to sell some of their holdings. The spread between corporate bond yields and U.S. Treasuries (a market that had its own dysfunction) widened, transaction costs rose, and issuance... By Brookings Institute, Financial Institutions Brookings Institute
report July 30, 2021 Addressing America’s crisis of despair and economic recovery Summary Despair in American society is a barrier to reviving our labor markets and productivity, jeopardizing our well-being, health, longevity, families, and communities—and even our national security. The COVID-19 pandemic was a fundamental shock, exacerbating an already a growing problem of despair. This despair in part results from the decline of the white working class. It contributes to our decreasing... By Brookings Institute, Report Brookings Institute
report July 30, 2021 Solidifying the DFC-USAID relationship Transforming the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) by expanding its resources and authorities while merging it with other financing mechanisms—including the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Development Credit Authority (DCA)—to create the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) understandably required a major sales effort. While the foreign policy elites saw the DFC as a counter to China’s massive... By Brookings Institute, Report Brookings Institute
report July 30, 2021 Is West Africa ready for a single currency? Since the early 2000s, the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has been pursuing a common currency agenda, centered on the “eco,” with the intention of reducing barriers to doing business across the region and increasing trade overall. While the implementation of the new currency has been postponed due to hurdles in macroeconomic convergence across the countries... By Brookings Institute, Post Brookings Institute
report July 29, 2021 Unlocking constraints to industries without smokestacks to catalyze job creation for youth in Kenya Unlike in much of the developed world, the promise of manufacturing to spur economic growth and jobs in Africa has remained elusive, with most of the continent’s economies facing deindustrialization. This trend is characterized by declining share of manufacturing in gross domestic product (GDP) and wage employment. All is, however, not lost considering emerging structural shifts, with services and... By Brookings Institute, Post Brookings Institute
report July 29, 2021 How teacher expectations empower student learning In primary school, we were both lucky to have teachers who thought we were brilliant: Ms. Darrow believed Sameer was an excellent student despite average grades, and Ms. Lewis made Niharika feel like she could survive anything. Looking back, neither of us knows why they thought this way, but we’re certain that they both truly felt this way, and... By Brookings Institute, Post Brookings Institute
report July 29, 2021 Washington Consensus reforms and lessons for economic performance in sub-Saharan Africa Abstract Over three decades after market-oriented structural reforms termed "Washington Consensus" policies were first implemented, we revisit the evidence on policy adoption and the effects of these policies on socio-economic performance in sub-Saharan African countries. We focus on three key ubiquitous reform policies around privatization, fiscal discipline, and trade openness and document significant improvements in economic performance for reformers over... By Brookings Institute, External Article Brookings Institute
